My Promise
by Rowanshade
Summary: "P-promise…p-promise me that you'll make m-me proud? That you'll be t-the best and m-m-most loyal warrior?" "I promise." Tigerstar one-shot.


**Juust a wittle one-shot for one of my favorite cats, Tigerstar :3 I always wondered how his mother died and all...so I've made this! **

**Disclaimer: Dude, it's just a one-shot. Chill. So no, I don't own anything 'cept the idea.**

_You know that cold shiver that suppresses down your spine? The one that makes your feet frozen to the ground so it makes it seem like your fur is stuck to snowmelt? And then there's that pesky block of ice in your throat, the one that refuses to be swallowed, making your tongue super numb and it feels like a sheet of sand is stopping you from speaking?_

_Yeah, that's exactly how it felt once I heard that shrill cry make the ravens flutter from their nests, making my ears prick. At first, how I felt was only minor at the time._

_My whole body then split, my face was frozen, and my paws refused to move once I saw my mother being dragged into camp._

_Your mothers are supposed to die when you're all grown up, you know? When you're a senior warrior, not when you're so young. When your so young that the kit fuzz is still coming off of you._

_I stood there with an expression that was so mixed and hard to put a claw on. I watched my mother being dragged like a branch from a river: it's lifeless, so you can just whack it around and toss it aside because it has no feelings._

_Well, my mother had feelings._

_Other warriors of ThunderClan looked in my direction, as if they were trying to see if I saw._

_Well, I did._

_And I didn't like it one bit._

_I didn't know whether it was because of Whitepaw pushing himself out of the apprentices den, or my senses coming back, but I ran over to my mother._

_Sunstar saw me coming and told me to stay back and let Featherwhisker work. That's when shock, anger, and rage split through me._

_Was this stupid yellow leader telling me that I couldn't see my own mother? When she was possibly dying? I looked at him with hard amber eyes, letting my emotions being expressed through them. I could've screamed or wailed, or given him a hundred reasons to let me pass, but one word seemed to do the trick:_

"Move."

_Sunstar blinked in shock; leaders weren't supposed to be ordered around. He looked down at me, our age, rank and maturity making us seem so distant. I looked back up at him; I wasn't scared._

_Well, I was, but my reasons being two different topics. A sort of understanding flowed through us at that time; it was like a cool, small wave lapping on my chest, starting from his and ending at mine._

_Slowly, he stepped aside, allowing me access to see my dying mother. I murmured a thank you, my paws springing back to life and taking me to my mothers bloody, broken form._

_I was afraid; the type of fear you never heal from. I bent over her body, so our faces could meet. A large, bleeding gash was on her left cheek, specks of white bone barely visible. Drying blood, exposed flesh, and puss. So much gore in one gash._

_Flecks of dried blood surrounded that gash, along with smaller, minor cuts. One of her ears was shredded, and I didn't dare allow my gaze to travel down to her lower half. Because I already saw the meaty, raw, shredded half when I watched her being carelessly dragged into camp. She didn't have back legs or a tail anymore; whoever did this practically tore her in half._

_"Mother," I whispered softly, hoping to get some response from her. A grunt, a whisper, a hum, a twitch of her whiskers, anything. "Mother please wake up." No response._

_I let out the breath I didn't even know I was holding when her green eyes suddenly cracked open. I saw their glowing orbs faintly underneath her matted black fur, before she opened them fully, slowly, to reveal so much pain._

_She said something; I couldn't understand it at all. It sounded as if she let out a small breath while slowly moving her lips. I rubbed my nose against her cheek, not caring as blood splashed onto my brown nose._

_"W-what?" I asked, my voice breaking off. She tensed up, allowing her broken forelegs to shift into my back legs._

_"P-promise…p-promise me that you'll make m-me proud? That you'll be t-the best and m-m-most loyal warrior?" she asked, her eye boring into mine. I opened my mouth in shock. My dying mother was making a me give her a promise at a time like this?_

_Her breathing was becoming shorter and louder; soon she'd be welcomed to StarClan's helping paws. I blinked slowly, pushing my nose into her the top of her head. Her scent, the one I was so used to, the one I craved for, was now disgusting and so foreign. My mother smelled of daises and honey, not blood and rotting meat. But I breathed it in anyhow._

_"I promise."_

_And as she smiled weakly, her form becoming stronger, her eye closing, her whole body going limp, I realized this was my promise. The promise that I had made to my now dead mother, the promise I was going to keep._

_I blinked dejectedly, already missing my mother even as she died a heartbeat ago. The mother who had raised me all by herself, when those faint memories of that reddish tom who dared called himself my father haunted me._

_But I remembered my promise. And I promised myself that I'd carry it to the day I died._

Tigerstar's eyes flew open, his whole body shaking and his breathing becoming rapid. The huge dark brown tabby unsheathed his claws, the only noise in the silent ShadowClan camp was his hard breathing as he struggled to calm himself. He looked around, seeing if anyone else saw their brave leader get so startled by a nightmare.

As he realized he was alone, he slowly lowered his massive head to his great paws. Then ever so slowly, he closed his amber eyes, only to hear the sound of kit's laughing and his mothers voice once more.


End file.
